"Hedged in, Shut up and Hidden from the World": Unveiling the Native and the Landscape in Alex Posey's Poetry

Abstract

Thoreau's life-long recordings of Indian cultures are his attempts to situate himself within the American landscape as a means to achieve some understanding of self. He recognizes the Indians' oneness with nature. In March 1842, records in his journal as he walks the fields of Concord that he is traversing where Native Americans once walked: Where ever I go, I tread in the tracks of the Indians. I pick up the bolt which he has but just dropped at my feet. And if I consider I am on his trail. I scatter his hearthstones with my feet, and pick out of the embers of his fire the simple but enduring implements of the wigwam and the chase. In planting my corn in the same furrow which yielded its increase to his support so long, I some memorial of him. (Journal I 337) records Indian cultures in order to understand the self. As he scatters the hearthstones, he scatters the very heart, the home, of the Indian to displace him ultimately. Yet unlike that of the Indians whom he meticulously studies, Thoreau's destiny is that of the Euro-American, and he is bound to them. Thoreau's own excursions into the Maine woods and his sojourn at Walden Pond are efforts to achieve a renewed, transcendent self. But his jaunts into the woods did not prevent him from accepting the Euro-American notion of progress. Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond, after all, was just a short jump from the railroad tracks. Situating in his place and time, in his ambivalence about the values of Indian as compared to Euro-American culture, will help the reader to understand the complicated position of Alexander (Alex) Posey (1873-1908), a Creek Indian who not only read Thoreau, but imitated his journal notes. Posey wrote poems about eminent Indian leaders such as Crazy Snake and Sequoyah and Creeks like Hotgun and Yadeka Harjo and about Creek ball game festivities. Like Thoreau, Posey was inspired by the natural landscape; images from the surrounding countryside of his home in Indian Territory appear in his various poems. Posey may have been influenced by Thoreau--he, at least, admired Thoreau--and, like him, often perceived the Indian romantically, as one with and, lamentably, as a vanishing breed. Posey thus views Indians as if he too is a Euro-American. On the other hand, Posey wanted to keep alive his Indian heritage as he wrote about Creek traditions and the Indians' ability to outlast the Euro-American. Posey's Euro-American education and his Indian roots often seem to create conflict for him as a Creek writer. In his poetry, Posey struggles with his heritage, sometimes celebrating his Indian identity and at other times distancing himself from his culture, in an effort to find his poetic voice. Posey, living approximately fifty years after Thoreau, parallels Thoreau's mystical and reverent regard for nature. Like Thoreau, Posey loved nature. Posey himself is quick to note the resemblance with Thoreau. In 1903, he writes in a letter to acquaintance Frederick S. Barde, correspondent for the Kansas City Star: Thoreau was a man after my own heart, because, perhaps, there is so much Indian in him. I carry a pocket edition of Walden in my jeans constantly, mainly just to have it near me (Hays and Boylan 79). Posey avidly read Thoreau's prolific journal writings(1) and Walden from which he imbibes Thoreau's view of nature and his particular way of writing about it. Posey imitates by writing his own field notes, making detailed notes about various trees, birds, flowers, and other wildlife. One early spring day, for example, Posey observes an abundance of wood violets; on another day he writes that the wind changed direction, blowing north and harder than on any other day; he also notes a black-capped chickadee, a cardinal, and a mocking bird, the new foliage of several fruit trees, and a full-fledged war between a black wasp and a leaf worm (Notes Afield). …